People for the Preservation of Pigeons is concerned with the protection and preservation of mankind's oldest domestic bird, the gentle and loyal pigeon. We support pro-pigeonism in order to promote their positive portrayal in society. Pigeons bring joy to millions who appreciate how they animate our cities. Pigeons were routinely used in wartime as airborne couriers flying over rough terrain and behind enemy lines carrying messages strapped to their legs.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Pigeon King Collecting Birds from New York?

Note in bold in the following article -- Pigeon King has been collecting 10,000 pigeons a month taken from New York, Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio. Collecting how? Aside from the squab and investment businesses, are they also in the bird netting business?

MARTINSBURG, Pa. — An optimistic group of pigeon owners gathered in Martinsburg at the Community Meeting Room last Friday.

Leading the 50-60 in attendance was pigeon investor Robert Detwiler.

Participants came from various parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The discussion centered on what to do with the pigeons in which they had invested thousands of dollars with Arlan Galbraith of Pigeon King International, a Canadian-based company. All of the investors, many of them Plain Sect, had done so in good faith of having a market.

However, Pigeon King, or PKI, which claimed to be in the squab market, has gone bankrupt leaving the pigeon farmers without a market. Squab is an exclusive dish served in elite restaurants and, according to one participant at the meeting, can sell for $165 per plate. Squab is made from pigeons which are 30 to 40 days old. Pigeon owners are now left with thousands of birds which are growing older by the day and must be fed.

Detwiler opened the meeting by explaining that, like others present, he had invested in the pigeons and had reaped the benefits for a time. He asked for ideas on how to deal with the situation. One person was appointed to write down each suggestion that would be sent to the various people in attendance and others who might inquire later.

Detwiler noted that one person let 2,000 pigeons out of their cages hoping they might fly away and he would no longer have to feed them. However, they returned to roost on his barn roof.

Detwiler also noted that he himself had sold about 10 of his birds to a dog trainer.

“We need to learn how to market what we have,” he said.

One person suggested using the birds for animal feed. Someone had heard of a man from the Scranton area who might have a lead on this.

A latecomer to the meeting said he and his wife had been on the Internet and found a processing plant in the Philadelphia area, but the Website did not have contact information.

While most of the pigeons purchased from Galbraith seemed to be high fliers or homing pigeons, Silver King pigeons seem to have more of a market.

A representative from the Imler Poultry Company said he is willing to work on finding a processing plant and a market for the pigeons although he could make no guarantees. He added that if he did find a market, the individual farmers would be responsible for getting the birds to market.

“You find a market and we will get them there,” was the response.

Another suggestion was for the farmers to eat their own birds. Detwiler noted he had found an old cookbook recently which had pigeon recipes and perhaps this was an option for at least some of the birds.

A former manager from Pigeon King said they had been collecting about 10,000 birds a month from New York, Pennsylvania, and western Ohio prior to the collapse of PKI.

One couple had discovered a Website indicating the pigeon manure makes good fertilizer and thought this might be a possibility.

Another said he had found a processing plant in New Castle that would use the older pigeons for snake feed.

“I’ve got a buyer coming tonight who will give me 50 cents per bird to be used for dog training,” came a voice from across the room. “Should I take it?”“No, was a quick response, send your buyer to me.” This comment brought a round of laughter.

International markets were discussed briefly but it was indicated that there are a lot of rules and regulations with regards to shipping out of the country.

A former pickup man for Pigeon King said he had met many wonderful people with his former job. “I saw them starting to earn a profit,” he said. “When I would go back month after month, I began to see a lot of good changes.

People were fixing up their places. I know it was a good thing. I would like to be a pickup man again.”

The general consensus of the group was that Arlan Galbraith never meant to harm anyone and this was not a scam. It was only an unfortunate incident.

Meanwhile, regardless, the birds have to be fed. Several indicated they could no longer afford to purchase feed with 200 pounds of wheat costing $42.50.

Detwiler indicated he had some folks growing wheat on his land and has been able to keep his birds going with this. Others found cracked corn to be the least expensive route to go.

Anyone who felt the operation was a scam was invited to write a letter to the Waterloo Regional Police Service. If they get enough complaints they will file an investigation. To date, they have received only about 13 letters. The address is P.O. Box 3070, 200 Maple Grove Rd., Cambridge, Ontario N3H5MI.Detwiler has also made an appointment with a bankruptcy lawyer and will get back to the group with information gleaned from this.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

What an utterly horrible group of people. The greedy creeps have dollar signs in their eyes over this plan to sell squab and when the business goes belly up, they're laying awake nights figuring out ways of killing the birds. Pigeons as snake food...used in dog training...what kind of nonsense is this? This is despicable animal cruelty, pure and simple.

Just a note here, My hubby has been in construction for 40 years and we were looking into this last year as a way out for him, but we just could not get financed. I still think pigeons can be a good plan. People just need to get together and get this going on their own. their are places that buy the birds. I my self want to grind the bird for the raw fed dog food market. Ground meats are a big hit in this market. A squab is high in nutrients. I am looking to buy birds for this market and will do the processing my self with an inexpensive meat grinder. Freezing the ground bird meat for sales to the raw fed market. People are doing this all over, feeding dogs raw meats.. I am one of those people. I dehydrate beef mixed with egg for treats. serving raw chicken to my dogs has been an issue since bird flu. But I do feed raw ground turkey. I think that ground pigeon will be a big hit with this market. plus you can always sell some live birds to the places like stromburgs in Minn. Or have some for your own dinner. They are a very tasty bird. I remember my uncle tell us that during the depression they had eaten lots of pigeons. Well, are't we in that situation now??

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Cher Ami

How Pigeons Served Mankind

Andrew Blechman, author of Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World's Most Revered and Reviled Bird:

Interview:"The first two were shot down immediately, the last one, Cher Ami, was sent up and it was shot down by a barrage of gunfire, almost to the earth, but for whatever reason it plucked courage and was able to flap its wings again, gained enough altitude to get out of gunshot range and 20 minutes later was back at headquarters. When it landed it was missing an eye, its breastbone had been cracked and the message was dangling from all that was left of its leg which was tendon, and yet the message was there. The message said 'please rescue us' and it was sent immediately to the commander of the allied forces and the soldiers were rescued. Now, you're looking at hundreds of men's lives literally dependant on one pound of flesh and feathers."

Prior to the age of electronic communication, pigeons were one of the most reliable forms of communication in existence. During World War I, pigeons carried thousands of messages that saved many hundreds of lives. In World War II pigeons continued to be used. Radios were frequently not working due to damage or unfavorable terrain rendered them almost useless. Pigeons continued to fly through enemy fire, and amazingly 95% of them completed their missions.

One such pigeon was Cher Ami. Cher Ami was a registered black check cock World War I Carrier Pigeon, one of 600 birds owned and flown by the U.S. Signal Corps. Cher Ami was originally bred by the British Signal Corps. He was transferred to the Americans after the war on Oct. 27, 1918.

Cher Ami delivered 12 important messages within the American sector at Verdun, France. On his last mission, Cher Ami, shot through the breast by enemy fire, managed to return to his loft. A message capsule was found dangling from the ligaments of one of his legs that had also been shattered by enemy fire. The message he carried was from Major Whittlesey's "Lost Battalion" of the 77th Infantry Division that had been isolated from other American forces. Just a few hours after the message was received, 194 survivors of the battalion were safe behind American lines.

Cher Ami was awarded the French "Croix de Guerre" with Palm for his heroic service between the forts of Verdun. He died in 1919 as a result of his battle wounds. Cher Ami was later inducted into the Racing Pigeon Hall of Fame in 1931 and received a gold medal from the Organized Bodies of American Racing Pigeon Fanciers in recognition of his extraordinary service during World War I. Cher Ami is now in the posession of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and will soon be on display at the National Museum of American History in the Armed Forces History Hall.

Pigeons performed other duties besides delivering important messages. Pigeons were even fitted with camerasthat took pictures of enemy troops. This provided vital intelligence information.

Cher Ami was only one of many World War I carrier pigeons that were decorated for heroism in battle.

Pigeons continued their valiant service during World War II and the Korean War. The Dickin Medal for Valor, an award only for animals, was given to 31 pigeons in World War II, more than any other animal (the next closest animals were dogs, with 8 medals).

Pigeons' navigational abilities, which are largely dependent on keen vision and an exceptional memory for topographic details, are legendary. A 10-year study of pigeon flight patterns conducted at Oxford University found that the birds rely more on their knowledge of human transport routes than on their internal magnetic compasses. One behavioral psychologist who studies pigeons remarked, "Pigeons commit new images to memory at lightning speed. ... They organize images of things into the same logical categories that human beings use when we conceptualize. - Ingrid Newkirk, PETA

Individuals with information, may call the HSUS live pigeon shoot tip line at 1-800-637-4124.

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For centuries domestic pigeons were revered, until the 1960's and 70's when there was a concerted effort and false campaign employed by the pest control industry so that pigeons could be exterminated, thereby creating a billion dollar industry.

"People worry that pigeons carry disease, but the danger is an exaggeration created by pest control companies looking for business."
- Guy Hodge
Naturalist for the Humane Society of the United States.

Science now tells us that the pigeon has been found to be able to remember hundreds of faces and are equal to higher order animals, such as dolphins and porpoises in their cognitive abilities.

Pigeons are amongst the most intelligent birds. According to a study conducted by the University of Montana, “[the pigeon] is one of the smartest, most physically adept creatures in the animal kingdom.”

The pigeon can recognize all 26 letters of the English language.

They can be taught relatively complex actions and response sequences, and can learn to make responses in different sequences.

In scientific tests pigeons have been found to be able to differentiate between photographs and even between two different human beings in a photograph.

A study conducted at Keio University in Japan demonstrated that pigeons could learn to distinguish between a Van Gogh and a Chagall paintings, based on multiple feature cues, such as color and pattern.

Pigeons can remember large numbers of individual images for a long time, for example hundreds of images for periods of several years.

The Pigeoneers is a feature documentary film written, directed and produced by Al Croseri. It is an homage to the bravery of homing pigeons who saved thousands of lives in combat in the Great World Wars. Their achievements embodied the attributes of service, endurance, loyalty and supreme courage. Here, their memory is evoked by Colonel Clifford A. Poutre, Chief Pigeoneer, U. S. Army Signal Corps Pigeon Service, 1936-1943.

“The Flight", a short film written, directed and produced by Al Croseri, is an homage to the bravery of homing pigeons who saved thousands of lives in combat in the Great World Wars. Their achievements embodied the attributes of service, endurance, loyalty and supreme courage. Here, their memory is evoked by two present-day homing pigeons silently taking flight from the windows of a New York City apartment. The film dissolves to a forgotten past as we relive their ancestors’ selfless heroism.

Books:

A Pigeon and a Boy was the winner of the 2007 National Jewish Book Award for Fiction.

During the 1948 War of Independence--a time when pigeons are still used to deliver battlefield messages--a gifted young pigeon handler is mortally wounded. In the moments before his death, he dispatches one last pigeon. The bird is carrying his extraordinary gift to the girl he has loved since adolescence.. . .